Mass grave of Albanians found in Serbia

The bodies of 250 ethnic Albanians killed during the Kosovo war have been
found in a mass grave in Serbia.

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A handout aerial photo of a mass grave released during a press conference on May 10 in Belgrade.Photo: AFP/GETTY

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The grave is located in a hilly, rural area of Rudnica, in the vicinity of the location of Majdan, pictured, which was searched for dead bodies several years ago without a resultPhoto: AP

By Matthew Day in Warsaw

6:47PM BST 10 May 2010

War crimes investigators together with the EU's law and police mission in Kosovo, discovered the remains an abandoned quarry near the southern town of Raska, which lies close to the Kosovo border.

Vladimir Vukcevic, Serbia's war crimes prosecutor, said 250 bodies of Kosovo Albanians had been located and the exhumation of the bodies would begin soon.

The Raska grave is the latest discovery related to the bloody suppression of an armed uprising by Kosovo Albanians in 1998 that aimed to free the province from Serbian rule.

Five other mass graves have also been discovered in Serbia, highlighting a policy of transporting the bodies of dead Albanians to Serbia in order to hide them and their fate from international investigators.

About 13,000 people died in the war, which ended after Nato launched an intensive aerial assault on Serbia, forcing it to withdraw its forces from the breakaway republic.

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Serb authorities were quick to claim that the latest discovery exemplified their determination to comes to terms with the nation's past.

"This is more proof that Serbia does not shy away from its dark past and is ready to bring to justice all those who have committed crimes regardless of their nationality or position," said Mr Vukcevic.

The Balkan state has formerly applied to join the European Union, but membership talks depend on Belgrade investigating and prosecuting alleged war criminals for crimes committed during the bloody and savage break-up of the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s.

Vlastimir Djordjevic, a former high-ranking Serbian policeman, is now on trial at the UN's war crime tribunal, charged with organising mass murder and the deportation of hundreds of Albanian Kosovans.